Wonder Woman 1984 Golden Eagle Armor & Comic Comparison Explained

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Wonder Woman 1984.

The Golden Eagle Armor worn by Diana as she flies into battle with the fate of the world in her hands is one of the visual highlights of Wonder Woman 1984. Yet the history behind this legendary costume in the comics is quite different from the story Diana tells Steve Trevor when she shows him the ancient Amazonian artifact.

Despite being raised in a warrior culture, Wonder Woman rarely wears heavy armor when she goes into a fight. This is largely because the culture of the Amazons in DC Comics encourages violence only as a last resort, and donning armor could be interpreted as looking for a fight. The Amazon way of fighting also depends upon freedom of movement and leveraging an enemy’s strength against them – two things that are typically more difficult to do when one is wearing heavier armor.

As such, the Golden Eagle Armor has come to serve as a visual cue to the readers of Wonder Woman comics. The armor relates without words that Diana is heading into a battle that will truly test her abilities, and that she feels the need for extra protection. Knowing how powerful Wonder Woman is thanks to her nature as an Amazon and her divine heritage, any fight in which she feels the need for heavy armor must be a big deal – which is certainly the case as she goes to face Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984‘s climax.

Golden Eagle Armor Explained

The Golden Eagle Armor is revealed near the end of Wonder Woman 1984‘s second hour, as Diana and Steve Trevor return to her apartment to plot their next move after learning of the power behind the Dreamstone and how Maxwell Lord somehow used it to give himself the power to grant other peoples’ wishes. As Diana surveyed a series of screens she had set up in one room of her apartment to monitor Washington DC, Steve spotted a large bundle in the corner of the room and asked Diana what it was. She explained that it was an ancient artifact of her people; a suit of armor once worn by their greatest warrior, Asteria.

According to legend, the Amazon queen Hippolyta freed her people from slavery at the same time that Ares had begun killing the other Olympians, spurring Zeus to use the last of his strength to banish Ares to Man’s World and create the island of Themyscira as a haven for the Amazons. This still left the Amazons having to fight their way through the armies of Man to reach Themyscira. One Amazon warrior, Asteria, volunteered to stay behind and fight the armies of Man single-handedly, buying time for the rest of her sisters to escape to the paradise Zeus had made for them. To aid her in this, the other Amazons gave up their own armor, so the Amazon blacksmiths could forge the metal into a special suit of armor – one strong enough that one warrior could wear it and “take on the whole world.“

As unbelievable as this legend was, it was presented as a factual account through a vision Diana shared with Steve through the Lasso of Truth. Diana also revealed that she had searched Man’s World for some sign of Asteria after Steve’s death. The only trace of Asteria that Diana found was the Golden Eagle Armor, with no indication of what had happened to the legendary warrior after her heroic final stand.

Wonder Woman 1984’s Asteria: Where Is She?

Asteria’s fate was revealed in the post-credits scene of Wonder Woman 1984, where a dark-haired woman caught a falling pole, one-handed, without breaking her stride while walking through a crowded marketplace. Stopped by an incredulous mother, whose baby carriage had almost been crushed by the pole, the woman revealed her name to be Asteria and that she had been “doing this a long time.” Given that Asteria was played by Lynda Carter, who was the first live-action Wonder Woman on television, this was a cute Easter egg for the fans. Yet it was also an indicator that Asteria is still alive and has not been inactive during the thousands of years since the Amazons went into hiding, though there’s no indication of just where she is now in the modern DCEU and just what role she might have to play in Wonder Woman 3.

Wonder Woman’s Golden Eagle Armor In DC Comics

Originally designed by artist Alex Ross, the Golden Eagle Armor first appeared in the 1996 mini-series Kingdom Come. Set in the not-too-distant future of DC Comics’ post-Crisis timeline, the events of Kingdom Come were later shifted to have taken place on Earth-22, following the reformation of DC Comics’ multiverse during the 2005 Infinite Crisis event. Wonder Woman donned the Golden Eagle Armor in Kingdom Come #3 before heading out to end a riot that broke out in the supervillain prison known as The Gulag, which potentially could have ended in a battle that would have destroyed Earth.

The Golden Eagle Armor was used to explain a vision of that battle experienced by Pastor Norman McKay, who had inherited the Sandman’s precognition and become an unwitting host of the Spectre. One of McKay’s visions showed a golden eagle doing battle in midair with a black bat; an image that made little sense within the context of McKay’s other prophetic nightmares. The meaning became clear, however, when the battle started and Wonder Woman, clad in the Golden Eagle Armor, found herself dueling Batman, who had donned a mechanized suit that allowed him to fly and trade blows with an Amazon.

The Golden Eagle Armor was formally introduced into the modern DC Comics timeline in Wonder Woman #144 in May 1999. The action of this issue saw Wonder Woman doing battle with a new villain called Devastation, who had been created by Zeus’ father Cronus as a dark mirror of Diana. Facing a warrior who was her equal in every respect save that she had no sense of mercy required Diana to don the Golden Eagle Armor so that she had some kind of a defensive edge against the more aggressive Devastation. Later stories revealed that the Golden Eagle Armor was forged by Pallas, an Amazon blacksmith, and presented to Diana as a gift. Though the Golden Eagle Armor was meant to be ceremonial in nature and worn only for special occasions, Amazon artisans are nothing if not practical and Pallas made the armor to be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. This is quite different from the history of the Golden Eagle Armor presented in Wonder Woman 1984.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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